I’ll Keep It Going

Well, now that I’m no longer hitch hiking around the country, the question remains as to what to do with this blog. I already deleted my Grad2Nomad twitter account as well as my Facebook fan page. I just felt like those were elements that I introduced mainly for people to follow me on my journey.Well, a new journey is beginning, but I’m returning to being me, Aaron Anderson, and not being known as a nomad anymore.

I think I’ll just use this blog as my personal blog from now on. In reality, I could still be considered a “nomad” in a sense, and I still feel like I’m searching for my place in life. Just because I found a job doesn’t mean that I have stopped wandering and looking for what will give me fulfillment in life. I think the URL still gives a pretty accurate description of my station in life. I’m still a recent grad that hasn’t yet found his place in life and so everything I do is still temporary at this point. Now the blog will be known as my nomadic journey in entrepreneurship. I really think that all of my decisions and jobs will be temporary until I successfully build a company of my own.

With that being said, let me update you on how this job is going. To be frank, I don’t really think I’ll ever be completely satisfied in a job unless I have complete ownership of it. I won’t ever have complete ownership unless I build a business around an idea that was mine to begin with.

Now, entrepreneurship excites me in any form. I get excited with the potential of building a business and being involved in the process whether or not I came up with the idea. But, I still feel like there is a missing element of fulfillment when I’m not working on something that I’ve created. However, I realize that I can gain and learn much by working for others and helping other small companies to grow and be successful.

In that case, this job is a great fit and I’m very excited for it. I have a lot of autonomy and I’m able to try and figure out the best ways of growing the business here in Las Vegas. I’ve already learned a lot and I anticipate growing and learning more with each passing week. I feel privileged to have a job that gives me so much autonomy and that will help me learn the essential skills and strategies to help a business grow from inception. Although this business has been around for a while, this is the very first office that we have opened(besides the Salt Lake office). Since the business grew organically in Salt Lake, the company has never had to learn how to open and grow the business in a new city before. That’s my challenge, and I’m loving the excitement of learning how to do that.

I think that’s all I’ll say for today, since I really need to get back into the habit of writing these blog posts. I have a lot to say about the challenges I’ve faced already and the strategies I’m implementing for going forward. I also have plenty to reflect about pertaining to the things I learned as a nomad and what I learned about myself from this experience.

First Opportunity

As I’ve talked to people about my trip, I’ve repeatedly said how I anticipate opportunities to present themselves as a result of what I’m doing. I always said how it’s hard to put a specific timeline on my trip because it could be dramatically changed based upon those opportunities. It could last a week, it could last a year. I just don’t know. However, I didn’t quite expect to have opportunities come to me until AFTER I’d started my trip. So, the phone call I got last Saturday came as quite a surprise to me.

In order to best introduce this, lets talk about what I’m looking for in an opportunity or in a new “life” for me. My main goal is to be an entrepreneur, and so any job I do get I want to contribute to this goal. I also want to enjoy what I do. By analyzing what I’ve liked/disliked about my post-graduation jobs, I think I’ve come up with a checklist of things I need in a job to really love it.

1. I want to live where it’s warm. I lived in AZ for high school and my first 2 years of college and so I got spoiled. Two years in Provo was enough cold for me. I just want to live where it doesn’t snow.

2. Performance-Based Compensation – I don’t really like working for an hourly or salary wage. I want to get paid what I’m worth. If I work hard, I want to get paid based upon that hard work. I think hourly jobs can lead to a lazier mentality. At least for me. Also, as an entrepreneur, this is a good thing to learn and get used to.

3. Authority to implement change – This one is big. A lot of sales jobs give me the ability to make lots of money, but don’t allow me to implement change. I like to be efficient. I like to fix problems. When I see a problem that could be fixed in a business, I want to have the authority to implement a solution. I want to be able to give feedback that improves the companies I work for. I often am excited about creating systems that will encourage more efficiency in business. This is one of the things I look for that is the hardest to come by as a “recent grad”.

4. Variety in task – If I do the exact same thing every day, I tend to struggle. The task can even be similar every day, as long as the situations and problems continue to change.

5. I want to avoid the application process – I know a lot of people might think this is unrealistic, but I hate going through the application and interview process. I want somebody to offer me a job because they know me and they can see the potential that I have. I don’t want it to be because I look good on paper and I interview well. Which, I do consider myself to be good at interviewing. I’d much rather work for somebody for free for a week or two and then have them offer me a job, rather than go through a series of interviews and applications to find a job.

So really, those are the main things I want. I’ve realized that all of these things are important to me. So, you’re probably wondering what the phone call was that I received. Well, I received a call from a cousin of mine last Saturday. Him and his dad had been reading up on my blog about my trip and my different ideas, and they thought I might be a good fit to work with them. I didn’t know anything about their company or what they were doing before we had this conversation.

So, their company name is Despain Craftsmanship. Basically, they do wood repair and restoration for commercial buildings. It was started by my uncle and was fueled mostly by word-of-mouth. Once my cousin decided to get into the business a few years ago, it has started growing much more rapidly. Well, they’ve expanded the business into Las Vegas, and they’d like me to be in charge of Sales and Marketing of their office down there. Also, they are wanting to create a replicatable business model that they can then franchise out.

It sounds like a great opportunity and appears to meet all the criteria that I’m looking for. There is a huge potential for the business in Las Vegas because of all the repair and maintenance that could be done on Casinos. They’ve already done work on the City Center and Venitian in Vegas, and they are getting great feedback from those projects. I like that with this job there would be a lot of flexibility to fix and improve things as I see fit. I would also be able to be an integral part of learning how to grow a business. Very valuable experience. It actually seems like with my experience, it’s a greater opportunity than I really deserve.

Although it looks like a great opportunity, I still want to gain experience from traveling and having this adventure. So, I’ll be working with them for a week or two so we can see if it’s a good fit for both of us. I’m going to hitch a ride to Vegas and start working for them next Monday. If it’s a good fit, then there is potential for a long-term position in the future. It’s just funny because I really didn’t anticipate finding an opportunity so quickly that I was interested in.

So, now that I’ve started this blog and got my hopes all up to travel around and experience life, I don’t want to give it up for a job so soon. If it really is a great fit for both of us, I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out so that I can still have the experiences I’m looking for. I’m really hoping that Vegas is just the beginning of my journey…

Parallels Between My Trip and Entrepreneurship

This is a topic that I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and I have finally gotten around to writing about it. One of the main reasons I’m going on this trip is because I want to be an entrepreneur, and I think this trip will help me develop entrepreneurial skills. So, in this post I’m going to talk about how this trip is similar to entrepreneurship.

1. Thinking vs Doing – This is one of the big challenges for wanna-be entrepreneurs. A lot of people talk about ideas they have for businesses they want to start, but they just talk about them. In order to be an entrepreneur, you have to get into the habit of DOING stuff, rather than just talking about it. Well, with this trip, it could be the kind of thing that I just talk about and never do. Lots of people think up cool ideas for trips or other things, but they never follow through. That’s why it’s important that I actually get out and do it.

2. Don’t Have to Have Everything Planned – This is similar to the last post, but there’s an important distinction. The reason lots of people struggle with doing things, is because they want to have every possible problem solved before they face it. When people ask me about my trip, they often ask what I’m going to do in certain situations when they come up. Now, I’ve thought about lots of different things, but there is no way I can plan for everything. There will be experiences that I couldn’t anticipate or plan for. As an entrepreneur, that’s something I’ll have to get used to. You have an initial idea, and you make plans on how to execute that idea. Then, you just start doing stuff and learn as you go along.

3. Adapt – These parallels are kind of making a progression because they build on one another. When an entrepreneur has an idea and starts doing things to make that idea a reality, he needs to be open to adaptation. Many successful businesses came about after an entrepreneur saw an opportunity, and adapted his existing business idea to go after that opportunity. I have a specific plan and purpose in mind. I’m going on my trip to explore cities, jobs, and companies. However, maybe once I get out there, I’ll realize that my survival is taking up a lot more time than I thought. Well, then I’ll have to adapt my purpose and goals for the trip based upon that experience.

4. Risk – We all know that entrepreneurs take risks, and they have to get comfortable with that. Their taking financial, emotional, and personal risks when they try to start businesses. Well, on this trip I’ll also be facing a lot of different risks. I’ll be facing the risk of not having a place to stay, not having enough to eat, not having any friends, and not being able to get to where I need. These are risks that scare a lot of people, and I’ll be honest, I’m scared of them too. However, I also think that where there is a great risk, there is also a great reward. As I get comfortable with risks on this trip, I think it will help me be able to face risks later as an entrepreneur.

5. Creativity – As entrepreneurs face different challenges the have to continually adapt and think of new solutions to problems. Lots of times, this requires a great amount of creativity on their part. An entrepreneur can face funding constraints, talent constraints, and time constraints. They have to learn how to be creative in order to accomplish their goals. I will face very similar challenges on my trip, and I’ll have to be creative and think of ways to overcome them. How will I make money? How will I find places to stay? How will I get to where I need to go? I may find that my initial ideas on how to accomplish these things may not work. Well, then I’ll have to be creative and think of quick solutions to my problems. Especially since I don’t have a home to go to at the end of the day.

6. Leverage – Entrepreneurs learn to leverage others time, money, and talents. An entrepreneur really is a master at finding the right talents, people, and abilities to make a business happen. It’s not uncommon for entrepreneurs to get people to work for free for a long time. Now that’s some impressive leveraging ability. I’ll also need to learn how to use leverage on my trip. I’ll try to leverage the power of my own network, of the people I meet, and my followers online. Almost every day I’ll be relying on my ability to leverage others and their assistance on my behalf.

7. Sell Yourself – If there’s one thing I hear a lot, it’s that as an entrepreneur, you have to sell yourself. Leverage has a lot to do with your ability to sell. You need to convince people of your idea, your ability, and your vision. Only by successfully selling yourself will you get the help you need. I’ll be doing the same thing. My survival is completely dependent on my ability to sell myself. Every amount of assistance I get will come from my ability to sell me. I’ll try to convince businesses to come let me shadow, people to give me rides or couches to crash on, and somehow convince somebody to give me money, for whatever I decide to do to get that.

8. Have a vision – Entrepreneurs have to have a vision of what they accomplish and be optimistic through their challenges in order to succeed. They will face many setbacks and challenges, and only if they have a vision and the optimism that they can be successful will they be able to make it through. I will definitely face some hardships and struggles on my trip, and it is only through my optimism and my vision that I’ll be able to keep going in spite of them. I can give up anytime I want, so it will really be my vision of what I want to accomplish that will keep me going.

9. Overtake Your Life – I’ve heard that starting a business can be extremely overwhelming and often takes over your life. You eat, sleep, and drink your business in order to make it a success. Well, my trip will be the same way. I’m basically eliminating all options to ever get a break from my trip. I won’t have a car, a house, or a regular job. I will always have to be thinking and trying to come up with ways to make my trip work. So, I guess you could say I’m jumping in with both feet.

Ok, well, I’m sure there are other parallels, but I think that is sufficient. These are just some of the main parallels that I’ve thought of, and it can give some insight into why I want to do this trip.

Want to know how?

As I’ve been telling people about my trip, I continually get asked how I plan on doing things. People ask me how I’m going to find places to sleep every night. How am I going to find rides and get where I need to go? What am I going to do if I can’t find rides or places to sleep, etc. So, I intend to answer those questions in this post.

In reality, I do have some ideas about how I’ll accomplish my goals. I’m of the opinion that as I meet and talk with different people and I tell them about what I’m doing, they will want to help me with my journey. The more people I can get to follow my blog, and the more people I meet, the larger my network will be to pull from. Every person I stay with, will probably know somebody else that might let me stay at their place, an so forth. However, I don’t intend to plan every single thing out about my trip.

Sometimes, you just have to act, and things will work out. If I waited until I had everything figured out about how to survive on this trip, I might never go. There is absolutely no way I’ll be able to plan everything that is going to happen. I know it will be hard at times, but I just plan and expect things to work out.

I see this trip a lot like I view entrepreneurship. I mean, a lot of people will talk about their good ideas and talk about how they want to start businesses, but then they don’t do anything about it. Really, you’ll never learn until you get out and start DOING stuff and learning from your mistakes. Too often, people are held back by their fears of the unknown or not having everything figured out.

That is what has bothered me about trying to figure out what to do with my life. I’ve had a variety of different jobs, but in addition to my jobs, I’ve also taken personality profiles, read different career assessments, and looked at job profiles online. But, we learn so much more through our experiences than we do sitting on a computer. I feel like the best way to learn what kind of things I might enjoy doing is to get out and DO stuff. The more people I meet, the more opportunities I’ll find. I can also learn from all of the different people I’ve talked to. I’m sure a bunch of people have gone through my same situation, and unless I get out and talk to them, it’s hard to learn from them.

So, no, I don’t know exactly how I’ll do everything on my trip. But, I think that if I just go out and do the trip, I’ll learn a ton from it. There will be so many cool experiences that I can’t foresee at this time. That’s the great thing about action. Just do stuff, and things will eventually work out.

Now or Later?

The other day at work, I was talking with a guy who had signed up for coaching. Now, when people sign up with a coaching company, they usually make goals for why they want to make extra income. This guy had a goal to go golfing in all 50 states. I thought it was a cool goal, so I talked to him about it. The interesting part is how he thinks his goal is contingent upon making extra money so that he can afford to do it.

See, there is a saying that comes from Robert Kiyosaki that I really like. He says that you should never say that you can’t afford something. Rather, you should ask the question, how can you afford it? By telling ourselves we can’t afford something, it requires no further work or thinking on our part. Whereas if we ask HOW can we afford something, it inspires creativity and forces our brain to work and think of solutions.

So many times in life, we find reasons as to why we can’t do the things we want to do. We often look forward to when we can “afford” the life we want to have. It’s easy for us to always look forward to the future when times or situations will (we hope) be better for us. Unfortunately, postponing actions usually leads to never accomplishing those tasks. We continue postponing them till the time is right, but the time is never going to be perfect. But, if we force our brains to try and think of how we can do what we want right now, we can often accomplish our goals without waiting for something that may never come.

That’s part of the reason for my trip. If I had a million dollars, there are two things I would do with my time. I would want to travel and experience different places, and I would want to build businesses. Before, I always thought I wanted to work hard to make enough money so that I could have the freedom to travel and do what I wanted. But, then I realized that this is the best time of my life do something like that, and that I should try to figure out a way that I can explore without having the financial means I thought were necessary.

Now, I know the path that I have chosen isn’t necessarily feasible for everybody, but the point is that if we use our brains, we can think of ways to do what we want to do now, rather than in the unforeseeable future. So, I guess the question that remains for all of us to answer is what things in our life do we keep postponing because of financial or other limitations, and how can we overcome those limitations to do what we’d like to do with our lives?

More Doubts and Fears

I’ve started having some worries today about my trip. As I’ve been pondering and trying to figure out what my fears are about, I think I’ve come to a better understanding of why I’m nervous. I’m scared that I’m not going to accomplish what I’d like to accomplish with my trip. I’m scared that I’m going to get out on my trip, and start having second thoughts about what I’m doing. Like, with every job that I’ve had with graduation. I can see myself questioning my motives for doing what I’m doing, and not having sufficient motivation to carry through with it. I really don’t want that to happen. I mean, I’ve been having doubts with every decision I’ve made with graduation, and this is something that I’ve felt really good about and have been really excited to do.

I think one of the main reasons for this fear is the fact that I’m pretty sure there isn’t any job that will excite me. I want to be an entrepreneur, and I really don’t think I’ll feel satisfied until I’m successful in my own venture. So, is the purpose of this trip really to figure out what occupation I could enjoy? Hmmm, now that’s the question. Although I would like to be able to find an occupation that I could enjoy and learn from while I work on my own business, I know that any occupation I have will be seen as a short-term solution to help me accomplish my long-term goals. So, really, I don’t think the purpose of my trip is to find an occupation I would enjoy, although I do think that would be a nice byproduct.

I guess I just really want to be sure of what my purpose for this trip is, because I’d hate to build a blog around a certain idea, and then want to change it half-way through. So, I think my real objective and purpose of this trip is to gain a breadth of experience. I want to understand how things are in the real world. How do people do certain jobs and feel fulfilled doing them? What kind of places are out there that I haven’t experienced? What kind of people can I meet and learn from? What do the big and small companies of this country look like, and how do they operate? What kinds of problems exist in the lives of people all over the country that could be fixed by businesses?

I really think that no matter what I do on my trip, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished my goal if I learn and grow from my experiences. So, really, I can do the same things I’ve been thinking about. I can try to go to work with different people. I can try to tour different businesses across the country. I can stay with a different person every night. Because, in the end, I just want to have a lot of experience and find out what my next step in life really is. I guess I shouldn’t end my trip until I have a specific plan for the future. I can see myself stopping in a city, seeing a good opportunity for a business, and staying there in order to bring it to fruition.

Now, that’s definitely a hard purpose to portray to other people. It’s been hard enough to tell people what I’m doing as it is. Just saying that I’m hitch hiking across the country really doesn’t do the trip justice. Whatever, I’m not doing this for other people anyway.

On another note, I’ve been trying to establish a schedule that I can maintain while I’m on the road. So, I’ve started doing exercises that I should be able to do, no matter where I stay. I’m doing calisthenics every night and running every morning. It feels great when I’m consistently exercising. How come I ever let myself not exercise regularly? I love running. Every time I go running, I feel so good and I wonder why I’m not 100% on doing it every day. I guess that’s just life. Constantly trying to do what you know you should do.

Well, that’s all the thoughts I got for today. There’s a funny video clip from the new twilight movie that I’ve been showing to lots of people that I’d like to share:

Computer Nerd

Well, I feel like I have so much to do before I go on my trip. So, I’ve been working hard these last days doing what I need to to be prepared. I’ve been shopping and trying to find the right sleeping bag, backpack, and camera for the trip. I think I’ve selected what brands and types of equipment I would like, and I wonder if I should wait until Black Friday to try and buy them. I’ve found some pretty good deals online, but I need as much money as I can get right now. I keep being surprised by the expense I’ll have before I leave. I want to pay for everything up front so that I don’t have to worry about any bills while I’m on my journey.

I got this blog up and running, but I think that I would like to do a Wordpress blog now. I just don’t think that Blogger is as robust and adaptable as I’d like it to be. So, I’m going to have to download Wordpress and figure out how to use it. The thing with Wordpress is that you have to have it hosted and so it’s not quite as user-friendly you could say. Well, it’s very adaptable if you know what you’re doing, but I assume there will be a learning curve involved.

While I was getting ready to get Wordpress setup, I realized that my hosting account had been suspended. It has been suspended multiple times because I get a bunch of spam on my forum. I’ve tried talking to the Romanian programmers that I used to build the site, but they hadn’t fixed it yet. So, I decided to go ahead and try to fix it myself. It took me all day, but I learned a ton. I learned about FTP, captcha, phpBB, and many other things. It is pretty elementary stuff to programmers, but I really enjoyed what I learned.

The interesting part is how I enjoyed working on the computer all day. With my jobs, I thought that one of the things I hated was the fact that I sat on the computer and inside all day. Well, I don’t think that’s necessarily the problem. When I was learning and working on my own project, I really enjoyed it and was satisfied when I got things done. I think the problem is me doing the same thing every day and working on projects for other people. I really think that I have to get involved in a startup on the ground floor to be excited about what I do with them. That’s probably why I’m excited about this trip. Because it’s my idea and my project. I might get sick of job-shadowing people, I don’t know.

It’s interesting, because I keep coming up with different ideas for my trip, but I know that things will change once I’m out doing it. I mean, I was thinking that I could probably make enough money every day by just singing and dancing with a hat for money. If not, I could also juggle. I might even be able to write song parodies about my trip and perform them. That sounds like a good idea, but is it something I’ll really want to do while I’m on the road? Maybe not. Well, I’m super tired from my computer adventures today, so, I’m gonna hit the sack.

Entrepreneurship Baby

My birthday party was a success. I didn’t have quite as many people there as I would have liked, but it was still pretty good. I’m sure if I was going to school and I was more involved in the Provo social life, that I would have had a better turn out, but that’s alright.

Now, it’s time for me to start getting focused on my blog. I just registered the domains Grad2Nomad and GradToNomad.com. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the blog hosted with my own hosting, but it’s hard because of my limited technological knowledge. I’m sure I’ll figure it out soon. Once I get it up and running, I will be able to start marketing it.

Also, I’ve had some renewed interest in RateMySummerSalesJob.com. I think that’s because my main interest is in starting businesses. As I think about the different careers I want, I really just want to start businesses. If I work in a career, the main requirements that I’ll look for are the ability to be extremely flexible so that it will allow me to be an entrepreneur.

Anyway, I’ve been talking with Todd Knight about helping with the rating website. He says he’s interested, but I’m going to try and get the Romanians to fix what they can first. I want to get that up and running before I leave so that I can also market it while I’m out and about. Well, I’m really loving life now, and I’m really interested in getting out and being social again. Now that I’m having some direction in my life, it helps me to be more confident in my personal life.

If I had a million dollars?

On Thursday I ran into a friend of mine at 24 hour fitness. He also majored in Entrepreneurship, so we started talking about what both of us are doing. He is still living in Provo, even though he has graduated, and so I thought our situations were pretty similar. The part that kind of bewildered me was how he feels content with what he’s doing in his life and I feel so restless. We talked about a bunch of different things, but there was a question he asked me that kind of stuck with me. He asked me what I would do if I received a million dollars a day? Essentially, if money wasn’t an issue at all, what would I do with my life? It’s a very valid question, and I’ve been thinking about it.

I’ve been doing research on careers and post-graduation life, and I found out that there is quite a bit of literature aimed at recent graduates. I guess what I’m going through right now is referred to as the Quarter Life Crisis. There are quite a few books that talk about how twenty-somethings can get through that period in their life that follows graduation. A lot of the things I feel are characteristic of what many recent graduates feel. It was interesting to find this out, because it opens my mind to some possibilities I might have with my blog. Also, some of the literature also mentioned that asking yourself the question about what you would do if you won the lottery is helpful in deciding a course of action.

See, on Friday I made friends with a guy over the phone, who I ended up selling. He is a president of some company out in PA, and I told him how I’ve been having a hard time deciding what I should do with my life. He posed the same question to me that my friend posed, what would I do if money wasn’t an issue? Well, at this point, I had thought about the question, and these are the two things I think I would do if money wasn’t an issue. I would travel, and I would start businesses. Starting businesses is just a big interest of mine, as well as traveling and seeing the world. So, what I told this guy is that I would probably travel. He started questioning me about what information I could gain from my travel that somebody would want. He said I might be able to get hired by a company for that information.

Well, that got me thinking, which led me to do research and find out about the Quarter life Crisis literature. I think if I have my blog focused on career exploration from the eyes of a recent grad, I might have something that could attract the eyes of recent grads and college students. There are plenty of websites out there that give tips and strategies for helping recent grads know how to get through their transition. If I have them as my target market, I might be able to set up some sort of job or sponsorship before I even leave.

So, I really think that if I’m going to get anything rolling with this trip, the earlier I decide to go the better. I’ve pretty much made up my mind that I’d like to go on the trip. I’m probably about 90% sure of it. The job with Launch Sales and Marketing isn’t going to work out because he said I don’t have enough experience. Also, I haven’t heard back from Ragnar Relays, and I just don’t anticipate hearing back from them at this point. So, I think I’m just going to start making plans and getting ready for the trip. Even if Ragnar does contact me and wants to hire me, I really think going on this trip will be the best thing for me. It will help me explore and see some of the world, so that I will be better able to commit in the future.

Also, as I was talking to a friend at a party tonight, I realized I’m kind of going about this thing all wrong. I mean, in terms of my career exploration. I’ve been looking for a job that I can enjoy. Well, I think the reality of it is that I don’t really enjoy working for other people. I’m too entrepreneurial. So, I need to find a business I can get into that will pay well enough that I can have the time to work on businesses. I think that’s where real estate comes in. I always had an interest in real estate, but mostly because of the money. Well, if I’m able to live at my parents house(they might be leaving on a mission and they want me to live in their house by myself), and I don’t have rent payments to worry about, then I should be able to find enough stuff to keep busy until I get some real estate deals worked out. I’ve already talked to some guys that will mentor me. It benefits them because we’ll split the profits, and they’ll be able to do more deals than they could on their own.

I could use that as my revenue source, and then with any other extra time I have, I can work on businesses I would like to start. I still want to go on this trip first, so, that will be my focus for now.

Junto Partner?

I like to be able to look at different times of my life and see the things that I’ve accomplished. I just don’t feel like I’ve accomplished a whole lot over these last two years of my life. That second summer of summer sales really made me think upon my life and realize I was working really hard and trying to get places to fast. Unfortunately, that thinking led me to do the opposite, and do really do much at all. I mean, if I started partying a lot more and going on tons of trips and what not, that’s one thing. But I didn’t even really do that. So, I eliminated a lot of the hard work and ambition from my life, and I didn’t really replace it with anything else. I look at these last two years of my life, and I have some regrets. I don’t really know how to define them. When I think of those years and the idea of my nomadic trip, the words of someone I respect come into my mind when he is describing my age group as “twenty something peter pans”. Or whatever it is that he says. He talks about how people in this age group are postponing the responsibilities of marriage and family.

I don’t want to be like that. Next year, I want to be able to look back at this past year and see all the things I have accomplished. I want to be proud of what I’ve done. As far as my trip is concerned, it’s not completely off the table, but I think going on the trip will only perpetuate that feeling I have. I do have a desire to go travel and I love seeing places and hitch hiking and what not. However, I also know that when I go on a weekend trip or something, it satisfies my desire for a little while. I remember when I was working at Qualtrics, I was really wanting to just travel the country and do my thing. Well, after I went on the trip to San Francisco with Ty, it quieted that part inside of me that wanted to do that. I was content for a while after the trip to just work.

Also, when I didn’t have a job or much money, there were some opportunities that I missed out on because I didn’t have any money. My cousins went to Havasupai, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I couldn’t go because I had no dough. I also had a friend invite me to go with him and some friends to Hawaii for a week. I would have loved to, but again, I had no money. So, I think that if I have a job and a fairly steady source of income, I’ll be able to afford to go on trips and see places. I also will be able to look back at my life and see the experiences I’ve gained and what I’ve learned in the workplace. I really think the next job I have I’ll be able to stay at for a while.

The diversity of experiences I’ve had have come to show me where my interests are. I think the two main reasons I had a hard time sticking to jobs were because I wasn’t sure what else I was missing out on, and I wasn’t content staying in Provo. Now, with me moving, and having had quite a few jobs, I don’t think I’ll have the same problem. Now, I know that I need to stay at a job for a while in order to learn as much as I can. I need to become a master at what I do before I ever decide to move on. For a while I convinced myself that maybe I just wasn’t interested in the internet or technology businesses. I also don’t think this is true. I still have plenty of interest in these businesses, and I’d love to learn how to be good at B2B sales.

I’ve decided now that I’m just going to apply to every job I hear about that sounds interesting at all. I don’t need to stress about it, but I’ll just apply when a job sounds like it might be a good fit. Then, I’ll wait and see who I get offers from. At that point, I’ll decide what job offer to take. If I don’t get any job offers by January, then I’ll go on my trip. I’m not staying in Provo, so if I don’t have something else to do, I’m not going to sit around and wait for a job. That’s when I’ll travel around the country, networking, sightseeing, and making lots of friends in different places.

I don’t know why, but now I almost kind of want to stay in Utah. Well, I kind of know why. I know there are great entrepreneurial opportunities in other places, and maybe once I move to a place like that, I’d be interested in staying. But, Utah has so many startups and companies that I’m interested in working for. I’m mostly interested in working for startups or small companies, and I don’t think that I have to work for a company to become proficient in sales. I feel like it’s one of the best places to work and live in order to get in on a great startup that I can get passionate about. If I get an offer that I really like that is someplace else, then great. If not, I think I’ll probably move to somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley. Another reason I kind of want to stay in Salt Lake is because I really would like to do the Junto Partners program. It’s basically a free entrepreneur training course that lasts 6 weeks or so. At the end of the six weeks, they pick 5 of the 20 participants to become Junto Partners. I’m not completely clear on what a Junto partner is, but it sounds like you become involved in a group that is designed to help people start businesses. Access to capital, entrepreneurial coaching and mentoring, among other things are involved. I want to be Junto Partner next sumer.